8/5/09 The Final Blog -- Family --- Today we made the final journey back home. More to come…. --- The remainder of Romania consisted of seeing the "real" Dracula Castle in Vidraru, Romania with a setting up in the Transylvania Alps foothills (see photo). We next visited the Black Sea, a summer spot for much of Romania and part of Europe. --- Last stop was in Romania’s Capital, Bucharest. This is an amazing city. The previous ruler, Cecesceau, bulldozed huge sections of the city to build enormous structures of cement with very wide boulevards. Some buildings such as t [View Full Entry]

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8/2/09 Happy Birthday Austin !!! Today, Austin turns 12. He is celebrating his birthday in Bucharest, Romania. Here are some photos of Austin and the rest of us in Bucharest. In lieu of a birthday cake, we went to the All You Can Eat Dessert Bar at the hotel. [View Full Entry]

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7/26/09 Austin: It has been awhile since we last blogged, and we have a lot to update on. We have been traveling through Romania for the last two weeks. We went to the Transylvania Alps, near Sinaia, and braved the weather to hike to the top in very windy conditions. We also spent a night in a freezing cold Cabana at the top of the mountain. The views are beyond words in the beauty of flat topped mountains at about one mile high. ----- We saw the most extravagant castle so far called Peles Castle. It use to be owned by [View Full Entry]

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7/11/09 Family - Our ride to Poland was interesting. At least we got on the right train, yet finding a sleeper car seat was difficult at best. Upon some advice of an English speaking German tourist, handing the conductor some cash resulted in access to the sleeper car which previously wasn’t available. At one stop at 2am, Jon filled in for the sleeping conductor to unlock the train door to allow other tourists to board. To our surprise, the tourists pointed at our compartment as being theirs. They were redirected to wake up the conductor for another compartment. We woke up [View Full Entry]

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7/5/09 Lily and Austin (with some parent input): We have been in Hungary for the last 1 ½ weeks, including travels through Budapest, Lake Balaton, and Eger. Budapest is a giant city divided in two by the Danube River. Pest is flat and Buda is hilly. While we were there, the Danube kept getting higher each day until flooding over the banks was prominent. Many different styles of architecture can be seen in Budapest, but one of the most impressive sights is the government building, Parliament (see photograph). Budapest is Austin’s favorite city so far because of the pretty buildings [View Full Entry]

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6/20/09 For those of you who were guessing where Cyrillic lettering originated, the answer is Bulgaria, and that is where we are. One responder correctly pointed out that the lettering was actually invented by two Greeks; however, our sources say that it was done so in Bulgaria and adopted into the Bulgarian language. ---- Jon and Stephanie (we took over the blogging this time) We didn't orginally plan to stop here, yet the train to Montenagro was 36 hours and the train to Bulgaria was a more tolerable 12hrs. This train was different from previous train experiences. A pre-communist er [View Full Entry]

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6/23/09 Lily: Over the last four days, we have been in Pamporovoro and Sofia, Bulgaria. Pamporovoro is up in the mountains. We stayed at two different apartments. We did lots of hiking in the mountains. The views are small until you get up high, but when you are high up, the views are great. --- Sofia is the capital of Bulgaria. There is lots of architecture in Sofia is European. I enjoyed the fancy shapes in the architecture a lot. --- We have repeatedly tried to find book stores, yet we have failed to find book stores for English speaking kids. [View Full Entry]

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6/15/09 - INTRO Istanbul is a truly amazing city. Situated in both Asia and Europe with the Bosphorus Strait running in between, it originated as a cross roads of trade for Asia, Europe, and Northern Africa. It still has Bazaars that sell EVERYTHING, and has cultural diversity among its 11 million inhabitants. ------------ Lily Istanbul is the biggest city we have gone to so far. It is the only city in the world that is on two continents; Asia and Europe (this is not true). There is a Grand Bazaars here, a big shopping market. --------------- Austin We took a 10 [View Full Entry]

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Sorry about the half entered blog "Turkish Culture". The rest was deleted by mistake. The problem with blogging is we do them in brief moments, and rarely are they completed in one sitting. It is all too easy to push the "Publish" button. I guess the photos tell it all. --------------- --------------- 6/1/09 -- Lily Pamukkale Turkey - Pamukkale is one of the most famous sites. It is calcium rock with water in it. It is called Travertines, and has pools of water on it. The calcium comes from the hot spring and deposits on the rock as the water cools. [View Full Entry]

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5/31/09 To the children who receive this blog: Austin and Lily have loved seeing your comments and emails. Keep them coming. They miss their friends a lot. We had a wonderful surprise in the Turkish city, Selcuk, when we met another American family with three similarly aged children who are also travelling and home schooling for four months. The five children became friends, had a study hall together, and an extended recess on the beach. All five children ended up buried in the sand up to their necks by two Turkish teenagers who joined them for recess. --- Additionally, a Turkish [View Full Entry]

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